You choose not to eat meat - why?
Most vegetarians are so for ethical reasons, I personally disagree with the conditions animals are kept in and some of the practices which are done to make them as profitable as possible with no regard for their lives, I also disagree with the conditions at the slaughterhouses. I also think that animals create large amounts of waste which I disagree with, as well as polluting waterways and producing methane, the worst of the greenhouse gases. Animals also require feed and water which could be used to feed humans, they also take up space which could be used to grow crops to feed humans on (obviously this is mainly happening in poor countries, but the meat comes to western countries, so we are also destroying other people's communities with our meat filled diet), rainforests are being chopped down to provide grazing land for cattle. In terms of fish - farmed fish live in cramped conditions and are bred to be different from natural fish, but then they escape and mate with natural fish, but they have characteristics which they are passing onto their offspring which is not compatible with life in the wild. Wild caught fish can destroy sea beds, and species are becoming endangered. We are eating the fish far more quickly than they can replace themselves. Farmed fish and shellfish in asia have a lot of antibiotics used in them, the water can turn toxic through the combination of lots of faeces and antibiotics, this can cause human workers to become ill, it also causes the waterways in poor countries to become polluted. On top of all this I firmly believe that a) we do not need to eat meat and b) we are healthier (except in a very few cases) if we don't eat meat. Even if none of that were true I just do not believe we have the right to kill an animal. If we actually needed to eat meat things would be different. So my views are mainly ecological and humanist (notice particularly how we f*** over poor people in developing countries), and also animal rights.
why do some choose to try and convert other people when eating meat is and has been done since the beginning of man.
I would never try and convert people unless they bring up the issue of why I am vegie, in which case I would explain my views (emphatically) but wouldn't be trying to tell them what to do. Assuming there is somehting intrinsically right about eating meat just because people have done so for a long time is called the naturalist fallacy - not everything that is right or good has been done for time, and not everything that has been done for all of time is right/good. In philosophy things that are subject to the naturalistic fallacy should be argued in a different way. Also not all "men" have eaten meat since the beginning - in the very beginning meat was hard to catch and formed a small portion of the diet. In more modern times in Japan they didn't eat meat as they didnt have native cattle etc and were surrounded by fish, so that's what they ate, meat has been introduced very recently from the west. Many societies on the indian subcontinent have been and still are entirely vegetarian, to them it is far more natural to not eat an animal than to eat one.
Your body shouldnt really choose to dislike meat - surely it would want you to eat it given the nutritional values meat gives.
Most vegetarians are not so because they don't like meat. I used to be one of the biggest meat eaters before I decided it was wrong to eat meat. All of the health benefits of meat can be derived from non-meat sources, if you are eating it from those why would your body need it from elsewhere?
Why do you choose to stop eating meat/dairy?
So I think I have explained about meat. Other animal derived products are similar - vegans do not simply not eat meat and dairy - they actively avoid any animal product in all parts of their life. It is a lifestyle not a diet. They do not believe we should be able to exploit animals for our own gain - they don't eat honey or things coloured with cochineal, they don't eat eggs, milk, cheese etc, they don't eat things with gelatine in (most sweets amongst other things), they won't wear wool, leather, or silk. They avoid products containing beeswax etc etc. Many do not even keep pets. Many vegetarians will also avoid some or all of these things depending on their own personal beliefs. I only eat organic dairy and eggs, and try not to buy leather or silk.
Im just curious why, and why name it - i see the name as a restricton.
The name is absolutely a restriction - it says "I believe this so much I never do it". This is good socially - it sends a clear message to others that maybe there is something to think about and to be taken seriously. It is also good psychologically - you feel empowered when there is a label to what you do, it also helps you to stick to it, if I just didn't eat gelatine sometimes what motivation would there be to not buy sweets with gelatine in, I would just think, "oh next time I won't buy those", but that next time might never come. People impose many rules on their own lives and live by them. It helps you stick to it, and it helps you feel better about it if you do stick to it. People do this about all aspects of their lives. Many people label themselves with a made up label just to themselves so they know what they can and can't do. It stops you making rash decisions when you are emotional. If you decide you are not going to buy anything this month that is much easier than deciding you will cut down, inevitably you will spend almost as much as normal or more, and feel guilty cause you broke a rule you didn't really understand - you have to tell your brain things, not the other way round!